Unofficial news and tips about Google

January 21, 2010

YouTube's HTML5 Player

Now that at least 3 important browsers support HTML5's video tag, YouTube added an experimental feature that lets you replace the Flash player with a native player. The main benefit is that your browser plays videos without using Adobe's Flash plug-in, which might slow down your computer and even crash your browser. Another benefit is that videos are treated like images and can be customized using standard CSS features.

For now, YouTube uses the h.264 video codec, so the only browsers that support YouTube's HTML5 player are Safari 4 and Google Chrome. Firefox only supports the Ogg Theora format, which is an open format.

"Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations. HTML5 on YouTube doesn't support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video," explains YouTube.

YouTube also updated the Flash player and made it easier to switch to a different version of the video.

Did anyone else find that the fullscreen button on the HTML5 version does not do fullscreen? It does widescreen whereas the Flash button does fullscreen and has a separate button for widescreen. Wonder if they noticed they used the wrong icon yet.

This is a big blow to Firefox. Both Google and Mozilla want to move away from Flash but can't work together well enough to do it. I'm honestly baffled why Google is so devoted to H.264. I understand they think it's superior to Ogg, but Ogg is still far superior to Flash video and Ogg can play in ~25% of browsers, H.264 just ~9% of browsers. Surely using both Ogg and H.264 depending on the client's browser can't be too hard for Google to do.

"Anyone who has visited YouTube.com in the past four years knows that you can embed video in a web page. But prior to HTML5, there was no standards-based way to do this. Virtually all the video you've ever watched “on the web” has been funneled through a third-party plugin — maybe QuickTime, maybe RealPlayer, maybe Flash. (YouTube uses Flash.) These plugins integrate with your browser well enough that you may not even be aware that you're using them. That is, until you try to watch a video on a platform that doesn't support that plugin.

HTML5 defines a standard way to embed video in a web page, using a <video> element. Support for the <video> element is still evolving, which is a polite way of saying it doesn't work yet. At least, it doesn't work everywhere. But don't despair! There are alternatives and fallbacks and options galore."

Ephilei is right. I am baffled as to why a company like Google would opt for a proprietary format over an open one. They move so far in a good direction and then pull the rug out with a move like this.

I am personally unimpressed with the Youtube implementation of HTML5. I have nothing but problems getting the videos to playall the way through, and I have given up on even trying to go back a couple seconds to rewatch a portion of the video, as it causes the video to stop playing and requires me to reload the page to finish watching the video, from the beginning. This might be attributable to the fact I am using the Linux beta of Chrome, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes flash the player of choice for me.

I don't understand the new video size toggle. Regardless of the resolution I choose (360p, 480p, or 720p) on the player toolbar, the video plays the same size as it originally loaded. What gives? Using Firefox on a Mac.

Hello, When HTML5 Mode is Turned On. If then, I Hover cursor on the available (360P, 780P) options then the choices appearing far below the buttons, which make impossible to press the Far Below (360P, 780P) buttons. Thus I cant able to see the Video in the Alternate Desired Resolutions. So in my case, the HTML is bugging. Chrome 4.2 is running. 4.1.249.1045 is running.

It's been over 3 weeks now and CHrome's html5 video player still is far from functioning. Google obviously does not have a handle on the technology, but, ala Microsoft, that does not stop them from releasing it, just to get something out there. Well, as of now, my Chrome bookmarks will be exported to FF. And it's back to FF for now. Cheers.

HTML 5 player is shitty full of bugs and flaws,i accept the fact the fact that they load faster than flash but the quality of the video is very very very very very very bad.......the videos are cartoonish........bad bad quality

HTML5 video tag is the perfect demonstration that HTML5 will fail to provide a common way to build web app over all browsers. The same thing repeat over years: spec are not done and browsers take the buzz and implement their own choices. Nothing new here. same shit. forget HTML5.